Essex’s courts have been as busy as ever throughout 2018 and there have been a long list of paedophiles that have had to answer to their crimes.

Among the criminals to be jailed for their horrific crimes are a man who attempted to rape a five-year-old and someone who pretended to be members of pop group One Direction to persuade girls to send him photographs and performs sexual acts.

There is also a man who used to perform as a clown before abusing boys as young as 11.

Here is the list of 30 paedophiles that have been put behind bars in 2018:

Reginald Wood (jailed for 17 years on January 5)

Former lorry driver Reginald Wood was jailed for 17 years for his string of “sick and depraved” crimes he committed against young girls.

The 82-year-old, originally from Stanford-le-Hope, sexually assaulted three young girls.

Colin Hodgson (jailed for more than seven years on January 6)

Colchester man Colin Hodgson, 61, was jailed for seven years and ten months at the start of the year.

It emerged that he had sexually assaulted a girl from the age of 18 months to three years old.

He admitted five counts of sexual assault of a child under 13, three counts of causing or inciting a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity, as well as three counts of making indecent images of children.

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The offences included seven counts of buggery and one count of attempted buggery of a victim under 16, 13 counts of indecency with an under 14-year-old, 15 counts of indecent assault on an under 16-year-old and two counts of making indecent images.

Paul Thompson (jailed for 15 months on January 18)

The 24-year-old from Witham was jailed for a total of 15 months when he was found to have hundreds of indecent images of children.

Thompson had a previous conviction related to sex offending and was visited by police on May 11 last year at his home.

During the routine visit the police instantly uncovered indecent images of children on his computer, depicting abuse of girls aged as young as seven.

Thompson was charged with seven counts of making indecent images of children, three counts of possessing prohibited images of children and two counts of possessing extreme pornographic images of children.

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Following the sentencing, detective inspector Bonnie Moore said: “Through the combined efforts and hard work of three of our specialist teams, we have been able to put Thompson - who was already a convicted sex offender and showed no remorse throughout - behind bars where he belongs.”

“Protecting children continues to be a top priority for Essex Police. Not only are children abused to make this imagery, but every time individuals like Thompson download or view that imagery, the abuse and exploitation of those children continues.

“We will continue to leave no stone unturned in our targeting of those offenders committing offences involving child abuse imagery.”

Stanley Noble (jailed for 12 months on January 19)

Colchester man Stanley Noble was jailed for a year after officers executed a warrant of his house in Hickory Avenue on January 9 last year.

Chelmsford Crown Court heard that during the search of the house officers seized various computer equipment including various hard drives and computer towers.

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Following analysis the computer equipment was found to have contained 380 indecent images of children.

He admitted the charges on December 19, 2017.

Neal McGowan (jailed for ten months on February 8)

(Image: John McLellan)

A former head teacher of an Essex school was jailed this month after ‘sexting’ a pupil at his school.

McGown, 54, asked a pupil to send him a picture of his penis and also sent a picture of his own genitals to the boy.

On the night of January 29 last year, McGowan and the student - who cannot be named for legal reasons - were both at an after school event and the head teacher had been locked out of the school car park.

As a result he could not get to his car and he asked the student for a lift to his house, but the boy had already left.

Later that evening, the pair swapped numbers and began texting into the early hours of January 30.

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Outlining the facts of the case at his sentencing hearing on March 8 prosecutor Lucy Ginsberg explained that the horde of horrendous stills and films contained nearly 600 from Category A - the most serious classification of indecent images.

A search of his internet history also revealed images had been obtained from as far back as April 2015.

The 38-year-old admitted his guilt during a hearing at Chelmsford Crown Court on January 10.

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Luke Doran (jailed for ten years on April 24)

Doran, 31, has been attacked by his fellow prisoners for sexually assaulting a young girl and trying to rape another while he was remanded in custody awaiting his sentencing hearing on April 24.

Doran, of Weign Drive, Witham, was told he was “still in denial” by Judge Patricia Lynch.

He was first convicted on September 28, 2017 after a lengthy trial for sexually assaulting a girl under the age of 13 back in 2016.

He was then found guilty of six further counts at a subsequent trial on November 9 last year for historic sex offences dating back to when he was 15, including the attempted rape of a five-year-old girl.

Doran was jailed for a total of ten years and was served with a life-long Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO).

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Stephen Lutkins (jailed for 18 months on May 14)

The Jaywick paedophile messaged a 13-year-old girl and described how to perform a sex act.

He was jailed only three months after being convicted for hoarding indecent images of children.

The 49-year-old, of Saddlebrook Close, Jaywick, was previously given a suspended prison sentence in January for making indecent images of children.

However, even though he was handed that lifeline, Lutkins breached his sentence and SHPO by contacting who he believed was a child online.

He also failed to notify police about his change of address after moving to Jaywick shortly after his last court appearance.

David Mills (jailed for 42 months on June 22)

Harlow peadophile David Mills, 43, tried to arrange to meet with a 13 and 14-year-old girl for a threesome.

Mills, of Parsonage Leys, messaged two decoy Facebook accounts set up by vigilante group Public Justice PHL in an attempt to arrange the meeting with two underage girls.

In a string of vile messages between the ‘girls’ and Mills in 2015 he spoke about having unprotected sex with both girls and how he would look after one of them if she became pregnant as a result.

He was sentenced at Chelmsford Crown Court to more than three years behind bars for the attempted meeting and three counts of making indecent photos of children which were found on several of his devices.

Russell Jameson (jailed for five years on July 19)

Russell Jameson, 70, horded a huge collection of shocking pictures and videos relating to the torture of babies and children as young as 18 months old.

The Dunmow peadophile, formerly a financial advisor, had a collection so grotesque that two investigating officers had to seek professional help to overcome what they had seen.

In July 19 the 70-year-old was jailed for five years at Chelmsford Crown Court with Judge Patricia Lynch saying before proceedings began: “Members of the public may well come into court but they may well wish they had not.”

Michael Aspland (jailed for 18 months on July 27)

Basildon paedophile Michael Aspland threw a Samsung tablet into his garden as police arrived to arrest him over a string of sex offences.

Aspland, of Samuel Road in Langdon Hills, was sentenced for his grotesque crimes at Basildon Crown Court back in July.

The 80-year-old was subsequently jailed for 18 months for making, possessing and distributing indecent images of children, possessing extreme images and breaching his Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO).

Brian Gillard (jailed for 15 years on August 9)

Gillard repeatedly raped and beat a girl over a period of 15 years during the 1970s and 1980s in Basildon.

Th 75-year-old, now of Pentewan Road, in St Austell, Cornwall, also physically and mentally abused a boy over the course of ten years in the 1970s and 1980s.

The offences were only reported to Essex Police in 2017 and Gillard initially denied the charges against him.

But on the first day of his trial at Basildon Crown Court on July 9, he pleaded guilty to cruelty to a child or young person, indecent assault on a girl under 16 and one count of rape of a girl under 16 on multiple occasions.

On Thursday, August 9, he was jailed for 15 years – a custodial sentence that matches the period over which he carried out his heinous crimes against the girl.

Jason Cowie (jailed for five years on November 9)

Clacton man Jasin Cowie will spend the next five years in prison following a series of sexual offences against children.

The 45-year-old, of Oxford Crescent, was sentenced at Basildon Crown Court on Friday, November 9.

Officers from Essex Police's Online Investigation Team (POLIT) executed a search warrant at Cowie’s address on March 17, 2017, following intelligence that he had viewed indecent images of children.

Cowie was arrested on suspicion of making indecent images of children and then bailed as his computer and hard drive were forensically examined.

After thorough analysis of his devices, it was discovered that Cowie had made a total of 159 indecent photographs of children. 48 of the images were from Category A, the most severe category, with 61 from Category B and 50 from Category C.

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Officers also uncovered three Skype accounts and found chat logs which continued to detail Cowie’s sexual interest in children, including one incident where he’d shared a Category B video with another Skype user.

He was found guilty of all five counts by jury at Basildon Crown Court in September.

Last week, Cowie was sentenced to five years in prison for causing or inciting a girl under 13 to engage in sexual activity with no penetration.

He also received 12 month sentences for five counts of making indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs of children, and one count of distributing an indecent photograph or pseudo-photograph of a child.

These will all run concurrently to the five-year sentence.

Jeremy Merritt (jailed for two years on November 16)

Jeremy Merritt, 36, of Tyrells Close has been sent to prison (Image: Essex Police)

Jeremy Merritt took up a false identity online as a girl to force a boy to send naked photgraphs.

He pretended to be the boy's distant cousin from America and told the victim to send naked pictures.

Merritt, from Upminster, also had hundreds of indecent images and movies of boys found on his phones, computers and USB sticks.

The 36-year-old claimed he had been hacked and later even blamed relatives for his crimes.

Merritt, of Tyrells Close, used the fake identity to incite the boy into sexual activity and to get him to send photos of himself naked.

Over the period of around two months, between August 1 and September 25 in 2016, an innocent boy believed he was talking to a girl online.

When officers attended the sex offender's address, they arrested him, and when they did, Merritt told them that his second cousin had access to his machine.

Police then searched the address and seized computers, phones and USB sticks where they found hundreds of indecent images and videos of boys. The collection was of varying categories, including category A, which is the most serious of abuse imagery.